Pros that plays for their preferred brand.

[ChrisWoj]

I agree mostly, but watching pros throw those random discs at islands on Jomez is pretty funny sometimes too.

Those are among the funniest pieces of content in the DG universe to me. It isn't just that they don't know the discs/manufacturers, but that those particular lost-and-found discs tend to often vary wildly from the stock flight path of a given mold. Watching them pick up a disc that every website online will tell you is stable and roll it over like an ultralight Destiny is hilarious. At least in that limited setting.

 

[Monkeypaws]

OP, good question.

I would guess that a lot of top pros are good enough to make any top brand shine, as we've seen with McBeth, Wysocki, Conrad.

Brand loyal/preferred I see mainly Innova: Sexton, Heimburg, Barsby, Brathwaite, these guys all seem to have special relationships with a handful of molds.

FPO, Tattar and Lat 64 seem like a pair as well.

 

[Jolt]

Has Tattar ever been with another brand? But it looks like Lat64 is treats her well, and i guess thats the key to keeping players.

I would like to see a Finnish brand pick up Henna or Eveliina, to bad Prodiscus could not keep Henna.

I DO wonder how many players has got a better deal elsewhere but made the choice to stay and be lojal to a brand?

 

[Orioles_Lefty]

I would suspect they would go for likelihood that their preferred discs to remain available. That's a very different position/priority than getting paid to help a new manufacturer grow. There's just so much disc duplication in this game which has everything to do with marketing and nothing to do with what discs people would or could be happy with.

I think the biggest advantage top pros have (other than peak talent) in disc selection is just being able to rifle through the inventory hand picking discs. You're not going to end up with a neutral fairway that flies like a Firebird on steroids doing that.

 

[biscoe]

Has Tattar ever been with another brand? But it looks like Lat64 is treats her well, and i guess thats the key to keeping players.

It will be interesting to see what occurs when her current contract is up. Given that her play does not decline she is going to be in a position to demand the big big bucks.

 

[acrosley]

Has Tattar ever been with another brand? But it looks like Lat64 is treats her well, and i guess thats the key to keeping players.

I would like to see a Finnish brand pick up Henna or Eveliina, to bad Prodiscus could not keep Henna.

I DO wonder how many players has got a better deal elsewhere but made the choice to stay and be lojal to a brand?

I am curious if the European connection factors into any future deals. If Jussi or whoever is in charge of Discmania now/then made one of them a big offer things could get spicy

 

[ChrisWoj]

Has Tattar ever been with another brand? But it looks like Lat64 is treats her well, and i guess thats the key to keeping players.

I would like to see a Finnish brand pick up Henna or Eveliina, to bad Prodiscus could not keep Henna.

I DO wonder how many players has got a better deal elsewhere but made the choice to stay and be lojal to a brand?

I don't think so. Despite being in her early 30s, she's really only crossed the 900 threshold within the last 5 years. And it looks like she only started winning a fair amount of events bigger than C Tiers in 2019. So she hasn't really had the time on the scene to jump around from sponsor-to-sponsor like a lot of other players her age.

 

[ray1970]

I am curious if the European connection factors into any future deals. If Jussi or whoever is in charge of Discmania now/then made one of them a big offer things could get spicy

Henna and/or Evelina would be a good fit for Discmania since the two of them are some of the longest throwers in the FPO field. Crush girls.

 

[Arisugawa]

I can speak for myself, with the caveat that I am a professional, sponsored player that does not tour.

I'm currently sponsored by MVP Disc Sports, and it was the brand I preferred to throw even before I was sponsored by them. I began, like most of us, as a mixed bag player using whatever discs were either given to me, acquired in player packs, or purchased because they caught my eye.

As I started throwing more, I developed a preference for MVP's plastic and began switching to their discs until eventually I was throwing only their discs. By the time I applied for sponsorship with them and began talking with some of the people at MVP, I wasn't throwing anything else.

I don't really miss a mixed bag at this point, especially since MVP has really upped their mid-range game in the past few years.

However, this is the plastic I want to throw and I'm fortunate enough that MVP supports me.

One of my friends who is also sponsored, though not by MVP, was courted by a major sponsor after a high profile amateur win. As far I know, she threw a mixed back at the time and converted her bag to that sponsor's discs.

It's a much, much different ballgame when you're a touring player, however. At that point, it's less about what plastic you prefer to throw and more about the kind of support you're going to get to stay on the road. You'll throw whatever brand is giving you the most support to continue touring, and switch to another brand if their offer of support is a significant improvement over what you currently have.

There is room for nuance here once you start looking at the various levels of sponsorship at the professional level, obviously. If you're pulling in top 10 finishes at Elite Series events routinely but are only getting the entry-level pro sponsorship, you're probably going to learn new discs for another manufacturer if renegotiation fails to improve the support you get. Also, some support is based more upon your social media presence/output than your tournament results.

And that's part of individual professional sports as a whole: brand loyalty only goes as far as both parties being happy.

I'm quite fortunate that I feel very supported for the level of play I produce while also throwing the plastic I like. It very much is a dream situation for me. My views and expectations might be different were I young enough and obligation-free enough to give up my dayjob and play disc golf for a living.

 

[biscoe]

Arisugawa is spot on.

I too am a sponsored player who does not tour. The first couple times I was offered a sponsorship I turned them down- this was from a company whose discs I primarily threw at the time. The offers did not seem sufficient to warrant acceptance and I didn't like the idea of being a shill. Prodigy came along and offered me a better deal than those offers so I accepted even though I had really only thrown a couple of Prodigy discs at the time. Within a month or so with the new plastic I was at my usual level of play (which is not all that great- I sort of consider my sponsorship a lifetime achievement award for working hard at many different things in dg.) At this point I feel I am throwing the plastic I would choose to throw whether sponsored or not, the company is responsive to my needs/requests, and I believe we are both quite happy with the situation.

Elite players will have much different needs from someone like myself at a relatively low level of sponsorship- at my level it is as much about the relationship with the people at the company as anything else.